Posted on 05/07/2008 7:32:51 AM PDT by SmithL
VALLEJO — With hundreds of concerned residents looking on, the Vallejo City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday to file for bankruptcy, making the city the first of its size to seek protection due to unaffordable labor contracts.
The dramatic vote came despite a last-minute appeal by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and an aide for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans for the city to avoid bankruptcy.
Four council members — Michael Wilson, Tom Bartee, Hermie Sunga and Erin Hannigan — joined Mayor Osby Davis in switching in favor of filing for bankruptcy. In the past they had been part of a 5 to 2 majority seeking to avoid taking that historic action.
Davis indicated before the vote that he had spoken to both Wiggins and Evans about the probable vote, and received assurances they would try to get help for the city from Sacramento.
Davis said that he had "turned over every rock he could find to find a solution" but none came and there is no longer an ability for the city to pay its debts.
Councilwoman Joanne Schivley, who had supported bankruptcy two months ago, called for unity, and said the council and residents need to work together. Councilwoman Stephanie Gomes completed the seven-member roll call.
Vallejo has been slammed by increasing costs of its public safety contracts, the housing crisis, lower property values and state raids on local coffers.
The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-09 Advertisement fiscal year which starts July 1. Tuesday night's dramatic vote came after months of fruitless talks between city and labor representatives.
After those talks, which continued through the weekend and failed to produce a long-range fiscal plan, Vallejo's top administrators recommended bankruptcy as the only option remaining.
Chapter 9 bankruptcy will allow the city to gain temporary protection from creditors and enable the city to continue to offer citizens necessary services.
The bankruptcy process would cost $750,000 to $2 million just in legal fees, city officials said.
Those supporting the bankruptcy option say the city has no recourse left but to rework expensive labor contracts and forge a budget Vallejo can afford.
Many others said the city should do all it can to avoid filing for bankruptcy to avoid hurting Vallejo's credit rating, image and ability to attract businesses.
City leaders say the city is quickly running out of money.
Just hours before it was to take the historic vote, the seven-member City Council met behind closed doors to discuss the latest developments on labor negotiations.
Vallejo bankruptcy attorneys have recommended the city approve any bankruptcy filing at least a month before city coffers run dry, which could happen as early as June 30.
The council also met privately Monday night to talk about the mediator-led negotiations, a day after parties met in a last-ditch weekend effort. Those sessions, held over the past two months with independent mediator John Kagel, have not been fruitful.
City employee union attorney Alan Davis has said a union-hired financial expert has produced two documents contradicting the city's assertions of an enormous deficit.
Davis vowed to release the documents if an agreement was not reached. However, the unions have been unwilling to produce the reports for public review.
On April 22, Councilwomen Stephanie Gomes and Joanne Schivley said a last-minute union proposal should have been made public.
Both Gomes and Schivley voted against the March 3 labor pact, saying it did not go far enough to reduce the union contracts' effect on the general fund.
The city has sought concessions from public safety unions and from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union members to slash contract costs and come up with a plan to balance the budget through 2012.
For the purpose of discussion:
Top pay for an experienced Police Officer ‘lateraling’ in to the Vallejo PD is 102,000 a year.
Top pay in the same situation at LAPD is about 74 thousand, plus a signing bonus.
$102,000 base??? And what does that come out to once they add in the gravy, i.e. overtime???
Fringes are slightly over one third. Overtime is whatever overtime is (I make it around 75 bucks an hour). In the city staff report last night, they added up salary, retirement costs, uniform costs, workman’s comp, training, recruiting, and all the usual fringes, and came to a department-wide average of 250k in taxpayer costs per sworn officer. Salaries for Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, Deputy Chiefs, and the Chief are included in that figure.
What a joke. Half the cities in the country are bankrupt if you factor in the future pension liabilities they have voted for themselves.
I understand that Vallejo is the capital of rap “music”. How about windfall taxes on rap?
I understand that Vallejo is the capital of rap “music”. How about windfall taxes on rap?
http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/sfpay/?appSession=8736399774961
In Vallejo, a mid-sized city of 121,000, 292 municipal employees earned more than $100,000 last year. But in Oakland, with roughly three times more residents, 1,300 city workers were paid six figures in the same period. San Jose, a city of nearly a million people, had 2,300. And San Francisco, which serves as a city and county government for its 800,000 residents, had more than 8,000.
Get a load of the OT that ‘Special Nurse’ worked.
One of the union arguments last night was that San Francisco has been running a deficit for years and it hasn’t bothered them. So, next time I’m in northern California, I’m going to book a room at the Mark Vallejo hotel, ‘cause it’s sure to be the same as San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins.
“Overtime is whatever overtime is (I make it around 75 bucks an hour).”
You can say that again. The San Jose Merc has run numerous articles showing the outrageous pay of cops and firemen. BTW, they had to sue to get the cities to release the information. The top paid officials in San Jose are not the mayor or city manager. Many police and firemen make over $200K per year. And don’t give me this baloney about how dangerous the job is. The top reason for police/firemen disability retirements is complications of diabetes.
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